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Missourians One Hundred 
Years Ago 



By Walter B. Stevens 

President of the State Historical Society of Missouri 



In Commemoration of Missouri's 

First Centennial Observance 

January 8, 1918 



Published by The State Historical Society of Missouri 
and the Missouri Centennial Committee of One Thousand 



COLUMBIA, MISSOURI 

1917 



.S'gif 



This publication is made possible by the financial 
assistance and is sent to you with the compliments of: 

The St. Louis Convention and Publicity Bureau, 
The St. Louis Members of the State Historical Society and 
The St. Louis Members of The Missouri Centennial 
Committee of One Thousand. 

(2) 






MISSOURIANS ONE HUNDRED 
YEARS AGO. 

BY WALTER B. STEVENS. 

The 40,000 Missourians of one hundred years ago pre- 
sented to Congress on the 8th of January, 1818, their peti- 
tions asking statehood. To them that date was significant. 
It was the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. Mis- 
sourians had contributed in no small degree to the over- 
whelming defeat of Packenham's army. A munition maker 
from Missouri was in New Orleans on the 8th of January, 
1815, with Missouri-made bullets and buckshot for Jackson's 
army. From another Missourian Jackson took in consider- 
able part, the cotton bales behind which the Americans were 
protected as they swept the ranks of redcoats. Missouri's 
first great demonstration of loyalty to the United States fol- 
lowed the receipt of the news of Jackson's victory. When, 
just three years later, the petitions praying for statehood 
were ready, it seemed to the patriotic Missourians that no 
better date than "Andrew Jackson's Day" could be chosen 
to announce their claim to admission into the Union. And 
on the 8th of January, 1818, John Scott, the sturdy Delegate 
from the Territory of Missouri, arose from his seat and 
offered the petitions. 

The Annals of Congress make only mention of this mo- 
mentous Act of Delegate Scott, but a copy in entirety of the 
petitions, which were alike, is given in Shoemaker's "Mis- 
souri's Struggle for Statehood." The memorial was a mas- 
terly composition, dignified, concise and forceful. It is well 
worth reading by this generation of Missourians. It set 
forth : 

"That your petitioners live within that part of the Territory of Mis- 
souri, which lies between the latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes South and 
40 degrees North, and between the Mississippi river to the East and 
the Osage boundary line to the West. They pray that they may be 
admitted into the Union of the states within these limits. 

(3) 



4 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

"They conceive that their numbers entitle them to the benefits and 
the rank of state government. Taking the progressive increase during 
former years, as a basis of the calculation, they estimate their present 
numbers at upwards of 40,000 souls. Tennessee, Ohio, and the Mississippi 
state were admitted with smaller numbers, and the Treaty of Cession 
guarantees this great privilege to your petitioners as soon as it can be 
granted under the principles of the Federal Constitution. They have 
passed eight years in the first grade of territorial government, five in the 
second; they have evinced their attachment to the honour and integrity 
of the Union during the late war, and they, with deference, urge their 
right to become a member of the great Republic. 

"They forbear to dilate upon the evils of the territorial government, 
but will barely name, among the grievances of this condition — 

"1. That they have no vote in your honorable body, and yet are 
subject to the indirect taxes imposed by you. 

"2. That the veto of the territorial executive is absolute upon the 
acts of the territorial legislature. 

"3. That the superior court is constructed on principles unheard 
of in any other system of jurisprudence, having primary cognizance of 
almost every controversy, civil and criminal, and subject to correction 
by no other tribunal! 

"4. That the powers of the territorial legislature are limited in the 
passage of laws of local nature, owing to the paramount authority of 
Congress to legislate upon the same subject. 

"The boundaries which they solicit for the future state, they believe 
to be the most reasonable and proper that can be devised. The southern 
limit will be an extension of the line that divides Virginia and North 
Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. The northern will correspond 
nearly with the north limit of the territory of Illinois and with the Indian 
boundary line, near the mouth of the River Des Moines. A front of three 
and one-half degrees upon the Mississippi will be left to the South, to 
form the territory of Arkansas, with the River Arkansas traversing its 
center. A front three and one-half degrees more, upon a medium depth 
of 200 hundred miles, with the Missouri River in the center, will form 
the State of Missouri. Another front of equal extent, embracing the 
great River St. Pierre, will remain above, to form another state, at some 
future day. 

"The boundaries, as solicited, will include all the country to the 
north and west to which the Indian title has been extinguished. 

"They will include the body of the population. 

"They will make the Missouri River the center, and not the boundary 
of the state. 

"Your petitioners deprecate the idea of making the civil divisions 
of the states to correspond with the natural divisions of the country. Such 
divisions will promote that tendency to separate, which it is the policy 
of the Union to counteract. 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 5 

"The above described boundaries are adapted to the localities of 
the country. 

"The woodland districts are found towards the great rivers. The 
interior is composed of vast regions of naked and sterile plains, stretch- 
ing to the Shining Mountains. The states must have large fronts upon 
the Mississippi, to prevent themselves from being carried into these 
deserts. — 

"Besides, the country north and south of the Missouri is necessary 
each to the other, the former possessing a rich soil destitute of minerals, 
the latter abounding in mines of lead and iron, and thinly sprinkled with 
spots of ground fit for cultivation. 

"Your petitioners hope that their voice may have some weight in 
the division of their own country, and in the formation of their state 
boundaries; and that statesmen, ignorant of its localities, may not under- 
take to cut up their territory with fanciful divisions which may look hand- 
some on paper, but must be ruinous in effect. 

"And your petitioners will pray, &c. 



In November, 1809, this notice appeared in the Gazette, 
informing the Missouri public of the inauguration of a new 
industry : 

"John N. Maclot having completed the erection of his 
Shot Tower at Herculaneum, — the first in the West, — gives 
notice to his friends and public that he will manufacture lead 
into drop-shot on reasonable terms." 

More than half a century after this announcement, the 
scaffolding of the tower still projected over the edge of the 
limestone cliff. Travelers on the boats approaching or leav- 
ing St. Louis were told the story of this early enterprise. 

John Nicholas Maclot was from Metz. He was in Paris 
just before the French Revolution. Suspected of republican 
sentiments, he suffered imprisonment in the Bastile. When 
released he came to this country. After some mercantile 
experience in Philadelphia, he came to St. Louis with a stock 
of goods the year of American occupation. The opportunity 
to make shot appealed to his inventive mind and he went 
down to Herculaneum, a new settlement which Moses Austin, 
the Connecticut pioneer was establishing. Austin was work- 
ing the lead mines at Potosi. He proposed to make Hercu- 
laneum on the river the shipping point for the mines. Just 



6 "MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 

below the town was a very high and overhanging diff. To 
Maclot the conditions suggested an ideal location for a shot- 
tower provided by nature. About all that was needed was 
to build on the edge of the cliff the place to melt and drop 
the lead with the proper receptacle at the base of the cliff. 

This was the fifst shot-making establishment west of 
Pittsburg. Maclot continued his manufacture some years. 
He dropped from the Herculaneum cliff the lead which made 
buckshot and bullets for the American armies in the War of 
1812. When the Battle of New Orleans was fought Mr. 
Maclot was there. He got off a letter to Mr. Cabanne in 
St. Louis. This was what he wrote: 

"The enemy have re-embarked leaving their wounded 
and prisoners. They landed 9,966 men. After the action, 
1,906 were missing in the next morning's report. They 
acknowledged a loss in the various engagements of over 
3,600. Their total loss may be put down at 4,000." 

Mr. Cabanne carried the letter to Colonel Charless. The 
Gazette came out with the glorious news. That night St. 
Louis illuminated. At least one candle burned in every 
window of the town "in honor of the brilliant success of the 
American arms at New Orleans," as Colonel Charless put it. 
Maclot was the son of John Maclot de Coligny. He 
came of good family in Loraine. He rendered the country 
of his adoption great service. Like several other pioneers of 
St. Louis, he did not have the fortune to hand down his 
family name, although he left descendants. He married a 
daughter of Charles Gratiot, Marie Therese, named in honor 
of her grandmother, Madame Chouteau. Two daughters of 
Maclot became the wives of Henry A. Thomson of the United 
States Army, and Pierre A. Berthold. Two daughters by a 
second wife, who was Miss Mathieu of Philadelphia, became 
Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Weston. A St. Louis descendant of 
Maclot is serving in the American army today. 



John Mullanphy of Missouri was in New Orleans when 
the battle was fought. He had been buying cotton in antici- 
pation of rising prices when the war permitted exports. 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 7 

Jackson took Mr. Mullanphy's cotton bales to make the 
breastworks behind which he awaited the approach of Pack- 
enham. Mullanphy protested to Jackson that his property 
would be damaged by such use. "This is your cotton?" 
asked Jackson. "Then no one has a better right to defend 
it. Take a musket and stand in the ranks." Jackson's 
biography says that the musket was placed in the Missourian's 
hands. Presumably Mullanphy made good use of it, for after 
the battle he obtained a most advantageous settlement with 
"Old Hickory," a settlement which enabled him to return to 
St. Louis and to take his position as "the first Missouri mil- 
lionaire." John F. Darby had from Mr. Mullanphy these 
details of the transaction which made Mr. Mullanphy the 
richest Missourian: 

"After the battle was over, Mr. Mullanphy said he could hear people 
on all sides saying they would look to the government for their cotton; 
and he knew it would take a long time to get money out of the govern- 
ment. Great delay, much expense, and an act of Congress would have 
been required. He went to General Jackson, and said if he would order 
the same number of sound bales, not torn by cannon balls or damaged in 
any way, returned to him as had been taken from him, he would give a 
release for all claims upon the government. General Jackson directed 
his quartermaster to do this, and Mullanphy received the same number 
of sound bales as had been taken from him. All the balance of the cotton 
used in the breastworks was put up at auction and sold for a mere trifle. 

"No cotton could be sold for more than three or four cents apound. 
After the battle Mr. Mullanphy seemed to have a premonition that peace 
would be made soon. The mails were carried to New Orleans at that time 
all of the way on horseback via Natchez. No steamboats were running 
there at that date, and no mail coaches ran in that flat swampy country. 
Mr. Mullanphy hired a couple of men to take a skiff and row him up the 
Mississippi river to Natchez. They ate and slept in the skiff. No one 
knew the object of his visit; the men with him knew nothing of his purpose, 
and were left in charge of the skiff on their arrival at Natchez, with in- 
junctions to stay in the boat all of the time, as he did not know what 
minute he might want to return. He went up into the town of Natchez 
and sauntered around, when late in the evening the post rider came riding 
at full speed, shouting, 'Peace! Peace!', having, it was said, got a fresh 
horse every ten miles to hasten the glad tidings and prevent the further 
destruction of life. Mr. Mullanphy ran down to the river, jumped into 
his skiff, and ordered his men to row with all their might for New Orleans, 
as he had important business there to attend to. The men knew not what 



8 "MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 

had occurred, and rowed all night and all next day with the swift current 
of the Mississippi, reaching New Orleans in good time. Mr. MuUanphy 
was the only man in the city who had the news of peace. He was self- 
composed, — showed no excitement. He began purchasing all the cotton 
he could buy or bargin for. He had about two days the start of the others. 
Late in the evening of the second day, from the large amount of cotton 
purchased by him, people began to talk and to suspect that he had some 
secret information. The third day in the morning, the whole town was 
rejoicing; news of peace had come, and cannons were announcing it. 
But Mr. MuUanphy had the cotton. Mr. Mullanphy chartered a vessel 
and took the cotton, which he had purchased at three or four cents a 
pound, to England, where he sold it, as was reported, at thirty cents a 
pound. And a part of the specie and bullion brought back with him as 
the returns from his cotton was sold by him to the government of the 
United States, on which to base the capital for the Bank of the United 
States." 



The Bartons had much to do with the statehood move- 
ment. It is a good guess that the admirable form of peti- 
tion was the handiwork of David Barton. David, Joshua 
and Isaac Barton were sons of a Baptist minister of North 
Carolina. The Rev. Isaac Barton was an associate of John 
Sevier's patriots who won the victory at King's Mountain, 
a battle of the Revolution which impressed the British gov- 
ernment, more than almost any other engagement, with the 
invincible courage of the Americans. David Barton be- 
came the first judge of the circuit court of St. Louis; Joshua, 
the first United States District Attorney of St. Louis; and 
Isaac, the first clerk of the United States District Court of 
St. Louis. David was elected to the United States Senate. 
Joshua Barton was killed in the duel with Rector. Isaac 
Barton continued clerk of the United States District Court 
more than twenty-one years. The brothers had read com- 
mon law and were acquainted with the English system. When 
they arrived in St. Louis they found themselves disqualified 
to practice under the civil law which had been continued in 
force. A territorial legislature was elected. The Bartons, 
with the half a dozen other American lawyers who had come 
to St. Louis, had influence enough to wipe out the old code. 
They got through an act which made the basis upon which 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 9 

the statutes of Missouri are founded. What they did was to 
pass an act making the common law of England and certain 
British statutes, not inconsistent with the Constitution and 
statutes of the United States, the law of Missouri Territory. 
That was done in 1816. The American lawyers were then 
ready for clients. 

Circuit judges were authorized to perform the marriage 
ceremony when the courts were established under American 
authority. David Barton, the first circuit judge, had a form 
which was marvelously brief. The parties stood up. 

The judge. — " , do you take to be 

your wife?" 

The man.— "I do." 

The judge. — " , do you take to be 

your husband?" 

The woman. — "I do." 

The judge. — "The contract is complete. I pronounce 
you man and wife." 

David Barton was known as "Little Red." He got the 
name when he delivered a speech which made him famous 
throughout the country. The Senate chamber was crowded. 
Barton had taken sides against the Jackson policies. His 
arraignment and condemnation of the administration for 
years ranked as one of the greatest speeches heard in the 
Senate. The audience became intensely excited. At the 
close, while people were crowding out of the galleries, there 
came a mighty shout: "Hurrah for the little red!" This 
was repeated again and again in the corridors of the capitol 
by the Missouri frontiersman who had been a listener. When 
the man became calm enough to explain he said the original 
"little red" was a game rooster he owned which could whip 
any fighting cock pitted against him. When he heard Sen- 
ator Barton "putting his licks" into the Jackson crowd and 
"bringing them down every flutter," he couldn't help think- 
ing of the victories of his "little red." The newspapers took 
up the application. Barton went by the name of "Little 
Red." 



10 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

Rev. Timothy Flint, the New England minister who 
lived in Missouri from 1816 to 1820, and afterwards wrote 
his recollections, described the Missourian of that period: 

"He is generally an amiable and virtuous man. He has vices and 
barbarisms peculiar to his situation. His manners are rough. He wears, 
it may be, a long beard. He has a great quantity of bear or deer skins 
wrought in his household establishment, his furniture and dress. He 
carries a knife or dirk in his bosom, and when in the woods has a rifle at 
his back and a pack of dogs at his heels. An Atlantic stranger, trans- 
ferred directly from one of our cities to his door, would recoil from an 
encounter with him. But remember, that his rifle and his dogs are 
among his chief means of support and profit. Remember, that all of 
his first days here were passed in dread of the savages. Remember, that 
he still encounters them, still meets bears and panthers. Enter his door 
and tell him you are benighted, and wish the shelter of his cabin for the 
night. The welcome is indeed seemingly ungracious: 'I reckon you can 
stay,' or 'I suppose we must let you stay.' But this apparent ungracious- 
ness is the harbinger of every kindness that he can bestow, and every com- 
fort that his cabin can afford. Good coffee, corn bread and butter, venison, 
pork, wild and tame fowls, are set before you. His wife, timid, silent, 
reserved, but constantly attentive to your comforts, does not sit at the 
table with you, but like the wives of the patriarchs stands and attends to 
you. You are shown the best bed the house can afford. When this 
kind of hospitality has been shown you as lono; as you choose to .stay, and 
when you depart and speak about your bill, you are most comm^mly told 
with some slight remark of resentment that they do not keep tavern. 
Even the flaxen-haired children will turn away from your money. If 
we were to try them by the standard of New England customs and opinions, 
there would be many that would strike us offensively. They are averse 
to all, even the most necessary, restraints. They are destitute of the 
forms and observances of society and religion, but they are sincere and 
kind without professions, and have a course but substantial morality." 

Brackenridge, as he traveled through Missouri Terri- 
tory, observed and wrote of the qualities of the Missourians 
one hundred years ago: 

'The frontier is certainly the refuge of many worthless and abandoned 
characters, but it is also the choice of many of the noblest souls. It seems 
wisely ordered that in the part which is weakest, where the force of laws 
is scarcely felt, there should be found the greatest sum of real courage, 
and of distinterested virtue. Few young men who have migrated to the 
frontier are without merit. From the firm conviction of its future im- 
portance, generous and enterprising youth, the virtuous, unfortunate and 
those of moderate patrimony, repair to it that they may grow up with 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 11 

the country, and form establishments for themselves and families. Hence 
in this territory there are many sterling characters. Amongst others I 
mention with pleasure that brave and adventurous North Carolinian, 
who makes so distinguished a figure in the history of Kentucky, the vener- 
able Colonel Boone. This respectable old man in the eighty-fifth year of 
his age resides on Salt river, up the Missouri. He is surrounded by about 
forty families, who respect him as a father, and who live under a kind of 
patriarchal government, ruled by his advice and example. They are 
not necessitous persons, who have fled for their crimes or misfortunes, 
like those that gathered about David in the cave of Adullam; they all 
live well and possess the necessities and comforts of life, as they could 
wish. They retired through choice. Perhaps they acted wisely in plac- 
ing themselves at a distance from the deceit and turbulence of the world. 
The enjoy an uninterrupted quiet and a real comfort in their little society, 
beyond the sphere of that larger society where government is necessary; 
where without walls of adamant and bands of iron, the anarch fiend or 
the Monster Despotism would trample their security, their happiness 
and their dearest possessions under foot. Here they are truly free; ex- 
empt from the vexing duties and impositions, even of the best govern- 
ments; they are neither assailed by the madness of ambition, nor tortured 
by the poison of party spirit. Is not this one of the most powerful in- 
centives which impels the wandering Anglo-American to bury himself 
in the midst of the wilderness?" 

In those early days, as the newcomers flocked into Mis - 
souri, those who had come earHer and who "kept tavern" 
had a way of classifying the new arrivals as northerners or 
southerners, without questions. If the stranger asked for 
sweet milk he was from north of the Ohio river — from New 
England or one of the middle states. If he called for sour 
milk, that identified him as from the South. Sweet milk 
sold in St. Louis at twenty-five cents a gallon. Sour milk 
was eighteen and three-quarters cents a gallon. 

An early traveler in Missouri told of the surprises to be 
met. He said it was impossible to form an idea from the 
exterior of some of the houses what might be found within. 
Speaking of the arrival at a rather unprepossessing habita- 
tion, he said: 

"Here we were politely received and entertained in the 
house of a gentleman formerly of New York. A large and 
splendid collection of books, several articles of costly furni- 
ture and, above all, manners and conversation like those of 



12 "MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 

the better classes in our cities, formed here a striking con- 
trast to the rules in the solitary cabin." 



Missourians one hundred years ago located their claims 
along the rivers and creeks. They chose timber land in 
preference to prairie every time. They cut and grubbed and 
burned rather than break the rich prairies. There were 
reasons for this. One was that game which helped out the 
living was more plentiful in the forests. Another explana- 
tion was that upon the fertile black soil of the prairie the sod 
had formed six inches thick and the pioneers had only weak, 
wooden-mold plows with iron points. A clearing of trees 
and brush left ground "as mellow as an ash heap" which 
could be worked with primitive tools. Not only were there 
turkey roosts and haunts of other game in the brush, but 
honey trees were numerous. The stories of the bee hunters 
handed down through the generations are almost beyond 
belief. There are many localities which were chosen for the 
settlements of one hundred years ago because of the abundance 
of wild honey. It seemed to the pioneers as if every hollow 
tree was a hive. What stonger proof of varied and profuse 
flora could be furnished! 

With what lack of appreciation the rich prairies of Mis- 
souri were viewed by early settlers, Beck tells in his Gazetteer 
of Missouri. This book was published in 1823. Mr. Beck 
was an author of scientific attainments. He wrote: 

"The prairies, although generally fertile, are so very extensive that 
they must for a great lenght of time, and perhaps forever, remain wild 
and uncultivated, yet such is the enterprise of the American citizen — 
such the immigration to the West, that it almost amounts to presumption 
to hazard an opinion on the subject. Perhaps before the expiration of 
ten years, instead of being bleak and desolate, they may have been con- 
verted into immense grazing fields, covered with herds of cattle. It is 
not possible, however, that the interior of these prairies can be inhabited; 
for, setting aside the difficulty of obtaining timber, it is on other accounts 
unpleasant and uncomfortable. In the winter the northern and western 
blasts are excessively cold, and the snow is drifted like hills and mountains, 
so as to render it impossible to cross from one side of the prairie to the 



"MissouRiAXs 100 Years Ago." 13 

other. In summer, on the contrary, the sun acting upon such an extensive 
surface, and the southerly winds, which uniformly prevail during this 
season, produce a degree of heat almost insupportable. 

"It should not, by any means, be understood that these objections 
apply to all prairies. The smaller ones are not subject to these incon- 
veniences; on the contrary, they are by far the most desirable and pleasant 
situations for settlement. They are of this description in the country 
of which we are treating; surrounded by forests, and containing here and 
there groves of the finest timber, watered by beautiful running streams, 
presenting an elevated, rolling or undulating surface, and a soil rarely 
equaled in fertility." 

Of home life in Missouri one hundred years ago, the most 
graphic and detailed description has been given by Dean Wal- 
ter Williams of the School of Journalism at Columbia, Mis- 
souri. Not all of the 40,000 Missourians lived this pioneer 
life as described, but many of them did. 

"The Missourian's cabin," according to Dr. Williams, "was from 
fourteen to sixteen feet square, seldom as much as twenty feet. It was 
built ordinarily without glass, nails, hinges, or locks. Large logs were 
placed in position as sills. Upon these were laid strong sleepers, and 
upon the sleepers rough-hewed puncheons to serve as floors. The logs 
for the cabin walls were then built up until the desired height for the eaves 
was reached. On the ends of the building were placed logs longer than 
the other end logs, projecting some eighteen inches over the sides, these 
were called 'butting poles sleepers.' And on their projecting ends was 
placed the 'butting poles,' which gave the line to the first row of clapboards. 
The clapboards were split, and, as the gables of the cabin were built, were 
so laid on as to lap a third of their length. They were usually kept in 
place by a heavy weighted pole laid across the roof parallel to the ridge 
pole. The cabin was then chinked and daubed. 

"A large fireplace was built in one end of the house, where, in the 
days before the coming of stoves, there was fire for cooking purposes and 
in winter for warmth. Sometimes the ceilings were covered with the 
pelts of the wolf, the opossum and the raccoon, adding to the warmth 
of the cabin. Greased paper served for windows. Often a log would 
be left out on one side and sheets of paper greased with coon grease or 
bear oil placed in its stead let in the light for the cabin. Bedsteads were 
sometimes so contrived as to be drawn up and fastened to the wall in the 
day time or when not in use, affording more room on the cabin floor for 
the family. The furniture was ordinarily entirely made with ax and 
auger. Knives and forks were often not to be found in the cabin. Horse 
collars were made of braided husks of corn sewed together. Oxen were 
ordinarily used for transportation purposes. 



14 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

"The dress of the fashionable pioneer woman was usually made 
plain, with four widths in the skirt and the two front ones cut gored. The 
waist was made short and across the shoulders behind was a draw string. 
Enormous sleeves were worn, tapering from shoulder to wrist, sometimes 
so padded as to resemble a bolster at the upper part, and known as 'mutton- 
leg' or 'sheep-shank' sleeves. Heavily starched linings often kept the 
sleeves in shape, or feathers were used which gave the sleeves the appearance 
of inflated balloons from the elbow up. Many bows and ribbons were 
worn, but scarcely any jewelry. Often in summer weather, when going 
to church and other public assemblage, the women walked barefooted 
until near their destination, when they put on their shoes or moccasins. 
Many pioneer women never saw the interior of a dry-goods store. 

"The food of the Missouri pioneer was largely wild meat and vege- 
tables from the home gardens. Small crops of corn were raised and 
beaten in a mortar into a meal. A course but wholesome bread was 
made from this meal, full of grit. Mush and milk was an ordinary dish 
for supper, while corn pone was served at dinner. Greens, dock and poke, 
were eaten. The vegetables from the truck patch or garden were ordinary 
roasting ears, pumpkins, beans, potatoes and squashes. Tea and coffee 
were rare and were regarded as chiefly designed for women and children. 
Eggs sold in those days at three cents a dozen, honey and butter at five 
cents a pound. 

"The pioneer Missouri women manufactured most of the clothing 
worn by the family. Their own gowns were usually of 'linsey woolsey,' 
The chain was of cotton and the filling of wool. The fabric was usually 
plaid or striped and in colors according to the maker's taste. The colors 
most often found were blue, copperas, turkey red, and light blue. In 
every cabin was a card loom and spinning wheel, regarded as necessary 
for the women as the rifle was for the men. Cotton was grown abundantly 
in Central Missouri and woven into cloth. Rolls were spun on little and 
big wheels into two kinds of thread, one the chain and the other the fill- 
ing. Only the more experienced spinners spun the chain and the younger 
ones spun the filling. Two varieties of looms were used by the pioneer 
Missouri women. The frame of the side loom consisted of two pieces of 
scantling running obliquely from the cabin floor to the cabin wall. Some 
years afterward the frame loom, a decided improvement, came into use. 

"Men and boys wore 'linsey woolsey' hunting shirts. The jeans 
were ordinarily colored either light blue or butternut. Sometimes the 
dressed skin of the deer was mad^into pantaloons. When a young man 
desired to look especially captivating in the eyes of the maiden whom 
he loved, he wore fringed deerskin trousers. Caps were made of the skins 
of the fox and wolf, wildcat and muskrat, tanned with the fur on. Both 
women and men wore moccasins, which in dry weather were excellent 
substitutes for shoes. In those days there were no shoemakers, each 
family making its own shoes. 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 15 

"Missourians of one hundred years ago were separated from their 
neighbors often by miles. There were no churches in many sections to 
call them together, no regular services outside of the few towns. Hence 
it was that with much cheerfulness that these pioneer Missourians accepted 
invitations to house-raisings, log-rollings and corn-huskings. To be 
present at these occasional gatherings it was considered no hardship to 
go long distances. It was the custom when men were invited to one of 
the gatherings just mentioned to include notice to the women folks that 
at the sarne time a quilting bee would take place. The bread provided 
for these frolics was baked generally on 'johnnycake' or 'journeycake' 
boards and in the words of one oldtimer, 'was the best corn bread ever 
made.' A smooth board two feet long, eight inches wide and rounded 
at the ends was the standard 'johnnycake' baking utensil. The mixed 
meal was spread out on this board which was placed in a leaning position 
in front of the fireplace. One side was baked and then the cake was 
turned on the board. The baking was a slow process, the board being 
kept before the fire until the meal was thoroughly cooked. At log-roll- 
ings and house-raisings it was the custom to furnish liquor. 

"One hundred years ago the Missouri farmer did not husk the corn 
on the stalk. The ears were snapped in the husk and hauled home and 
thrown in a heap by the side of the crib, so that the ears when husked 
could be thrown into the crib. The neighbors for a considerable distance, 
men and women, were invited to the 'husking,' as it was called. Married 
and unmarried women and men engaged in the shucking bees. Two 
expert huskers were selected as captains, and the heap of corn divided 
as nearly equal as possible. Rails were laid across the pile to designate 
the division. Each captain chose alternately his huskers, men and women. 
The contest between the two parties to see which could finish first shucking 
often became exciting. Whenever a man husked a red ear of corn he was 
entitled to a kiss from any one of the girls. This frequently excited much 
fuss and scuffle, which was intended by both parties to end in a kiss. It 
is said to have been a general practice that whiskey was used at these 
husking frolics, men and women drinking together out of a bottle, with- 
out glass or cup. The dance followed the completion of the husking. 
Jigs and four-handed reels and three-handed reels were usually engaged 
in. Seldom was there drunkenness. No sitting down was indulged i n. 
Every one stood up or danced." 



The first Baptists to become residents of Missouri are 
said to have been Thomas Bull and his wife and mother-in- 
law, Mrs. Lee, who settled near what is now Jackson in 1796. 
Two or three years later, Rev. Thomas Johnson, a Baptist 
preacher, came to the Cape Girardeau district on a visit. He 



16 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

baptized Mrs. Agnes Ballew in Randol's Creek. This was 
said to have been the first Protestant baptism west of the 
Mississippi. Bethel Baptist church was organized in Cape 
Girardeau district July 10, 1806, at the home of Thomas Bull 
by Rev. David Green, who had moved from Virginia. In 
1807, William Matthews was chosen "singing clerk." The 
next year Thomas Wright and two members of his family 
were excluded for holding "Armenian views." In 1811, John 
Reynolds was excluded for joining a Masonic lodge. In 
1818 it was resolved by the church that Hannah Edwards be 
allowed to wear gold earrings for the benefit of her health. 
An entry in the church minutes in 1818 read: 

"Church in conference: Query: If a member is con- 
strained to shout, shall the church bear with it? Answer: 
Yes." 

A noted Methodist preacher in Southeast Missouri about 
1817, was Rucker Tanner. He was a man of very dark com- 
plexion and when young was wild. The story was told of 
him that when a boy he went with an older brother to New 
Orleans. The two spent all of their money. The older per- 
suaded the other to let him sell him as a negro slave, got the 
money and disappeared. After some time the boy convinced 
his master that he was white and was freed. He started to 
walk home to Missouri, made the acquaintance of a local 
preacher and hired out to him. In the course of time he was 
converted and decided to become a preacher. His employer 
encouraged him. Years after he had been given up for dead, 
Rucker Tanner came back to the New Madrid district and 
made himself known to relatives. He accepted an appoint- 
ment to preach. The congregation that assembled to hear 
him was the largest that had assembled in that part of Mis- 
souri. 

Millard Fillmore Stipes, the author of "Gleanings in 
Missouri History," gives on authority of Judge Fagg, this de- 
scription of a Pike county religious service: 

"One of the earliest settlers in Pike county was John Mackey, who 
erected his cabin near a line of bluffs which marked the western boundary 
of Calumet Creek Valley. It was of the usual pioneer style unhewn logs 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 17 

and puncheon floor. There was one room below, and a loft above where 
the older children slept. On the afternoon of a bitterly cold day in 1821, 
an itinerant preacher rode into the little settlement that had sprung up 
about the Mackey cabin. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the even- 
ing. Aunt Nancy Mackey, devout and hospitable, induced the itinerant 
to preach at her cabin that night. Couriers went through the snowstorm 
to the neighbors, and a goodly number trailed through the drifts to the 
appointed place. The storm had driven a score or more of hogs beneath 
the cabin for shelter, and when the preacher arose to announce his text 
the porkers, in their individual efforts to secure a warm berth near the 
great fireplace, set up such a squealing that the efforts of the preacher 
to make himself heard were unavailing. Presently some degree of quiet 
was obtained and the services began. But a little later, however, a gust 
of wind blew open the door which some late comer had not securely fast- 
ened, and in strode an old sow with a nonchalance that indicated perfect 
familiarity with the room. The small boy of the family gave her a wel- 
coming shout, and, jumping astride her back, with one of her ears grasped 
in each hand, rode the squealing animal around the room, much to the 
consternation of the female portion of the audience. 

"After several circuits of the room, the boy and his steed passed out 
the door. But not yet were the interruptions over. A flock of geese 
had, in the meantime, walked in at the open door, and, keeping up a loud 
hissing and scattering, refused to withdraw. But Aunt Nancy was equal 
to the occasion. Taking an ear of corn from the jamb, she walked balk- 
wards through the open door, shelling the corn and coaxing the fowls in 
her most persuasive tones. The flock once outside, the door was closed, 
and the interrupted discourse concluded. It is said that these occurrences 
were accepted as a matter unavoidable. The audience was patient and 
the equanimity of the preacher undisturbed, while Aunt Nancy folded 
her arms as complacently as if such annoyances were not out of the usual 
routine." 

In "Pioneer Families of Missouri," is printed a letter 
written by a woman to her sister in Kentucky: 

"The men and dogs have a fine time, but we poor women have to 
suffer. We pack water from one-half mile to one mile for cooking and 
washing. My advice is, stay where you are. But if you see any one 
coming to this country, send a plank cradle for poor little Patrick. His 
poor little back is full of hard bumps, lying in a cradle George made out 
of a hollow log with a piece of wood for a pillow. George and I attended 
a wedding last week. The preacher, a hard-shell Baptist, had a long 
buckskin overcoat. The groom was in his shirt sleeves, with white cotton 
pants that came just below his knees, and white cotton socks and buck- 
skin slippers on his feet. The girl was dressed in a low-necked, short- 
waisted, short-sleeved white cotton dress that was monstrous short for 
a girl like her. She had on buckskin slippers and her hair was tied with 

2 



18 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

a buckskin string, which is all the go here. And when the preacher was 
spelling and reading the ceremony from the book, the girl commenced 
sneezing and the buckskin string slipped off her hair, which fell all over 
her face, and every body laughed." 

An early marriage ceremony in Livingston county took 
place with the couple on one side of Medicine creek and 
Squire Jordan on the other side. The creek was booming. 
The young man swam the stream and brought the squire 
down from his house. Then the young man swam back and 
took his place beside the young woman. Squire Jordan 
couldn't swim. He wanted to postpone the ceremony a few 
days until the creek went down. The young folks wouldn't 
have it. They joined hands and told the squire to go ahead. 
The questions and answers were shouted across the creek and 
the knot was tied. Medicine creek got its name, according 
to tradition, because a country doctor in trying to swim it 
lost his "pill bags," as they were called. 



A thriving Missouri industry of one hundred years ago 
was the booming of townsites. According to an early writer 
on Missouri, "towns were laid out all over the country and 
lots were purchased by every one on credit; the townmaker 
received no money for his lots, but he received notes of hand 
which he considered to be as good as cash; and he lived and 
embarked on other ventures as if they had been cash in 
truth." 

Near the center of Benton county a town called Osage 
was established. The founders showed their faith by set- 
tling there with their families. They ventured the predic- 
tion that "the population of this place will reach several thou- 
sand in five years and ever after to be second to St. Louis 
only." Osage depended upon the navigation of the Osage 
River. Among the inducements held out to encourage new- 
comers was the promise to "establish a seminary of learning, 
to be conducted by one of the best scholars, a graduate of an 
eastern college, that can be procured. Female teachers from 
Massachusetts will be likewise employed at the Osage Sem- 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 19 

inary." At that time the great diagonal trail from Palmyra 
in Northeast Missouri to Springfield in Southwest Missouri 
and thence to Red River, crossed the Osage at the place 
selected for the new city. The site of Osage was on the table- 
land overlooking Bledsoe's Ferry, which became historic. 
Osage had a beautiful location. The promoters told of the 
wonderful natural resources. They built a hotel and planned 
warehouses, expecting to take care of the trade of a large 
section of Central Missouri. Had transportation been lim- 
ited to water their great expectations would, in some degree, 
have been realized. Osage became a reminiscence. 

In 1820 one of the ambitious townsites was at the junc- 
tion of the Missouri and Osage rivers. "Lots to the amount 
of $20,000 or S30,000 were sold," according to the Gazetteer, 
"but the move was a premature one and no improvement was 
made there. The best corner lots are still encumbered with 
the native crabtree and the principal streets are thickly 
shaded with hazel. The business there is carfied on by a 
single concern. This is the commission and forwarding 
house of Raccoon, Possum & Company. The operation of 
this house, or the broken surface of the country, may have 
given the reproachful name of 'Varmint County' to Cole, 
which it never deserved." 

At an old settlers' reunion on the fairgrounds of Keytes- 
ville forty years ago, Charles G. Cabell gave this reminis- 
cence of one of the lost towns of Missouri very promising a 
hundred years ago : 

"The town of Chariton was a rival of St. Louis, and was nearly, if 
not quite as large. This opinion was so strong that many persons flocked 
to Chariton, believing it would become the largest city in the territory. 
Uncle Billy Cabeen exchanged lots in St. Louis for lots in Chariton, foot 
for foot. He improved the lots in Chariton, lived many years on them, 
and died on them, respected by a large circle of friends and by all who 
knew him. Chariton occupied a level of ground half a mile north and 
south, lying between large hills on the east and Chariton river on the 
west — or something less than half a mile in width. In some portions of 
the town the houses were very close together, and were built of brick. 
It was supposed to contain several thousand inhabitants. If Yankee 
Doodle was to pass through the place now he could not see the hoisi 
for the town — the reverse of which was the case with him on a for.n^ 



20 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

occasion. The town of Chariton could boast of as good society as any 
city in America, having men of great literary attainments, of skill in their 
professions, and of great social endowments, representing almost all the 
noted institutions of learning in this country; even Edinburgh, Scotland, 
was represented." 

The politicians at St. Louis were not behind in reaping 
their share of the townsite harvest. Duff Green, one of the 
makers of Missouri in the legislative sense, who afterwards 
removed to the national capital and became a widely-known 
journalist, was the promoter of Bluffton which he located on 
the Missouri River forty miles above Chariton. 

"From its local situation" said Mr. Green in his announcement, 
"it promises not only to become the seat of justice for the county soon to 
be formed of the rich lands lying on Crooked and Fishing rivers, but also 
offers great inducements to mechanics, manufacturers, merchants and 
all citizens who are disposed to live in a village. It is laid off on a liberal 
scale. Dr. B. F. Edwards, living on the premises, is authorized to dis- 
pose of lots, and mechanics and actual settlers who will put improve- 
ments to be agreed on shall have lots gratis. A word to the wise is sufficient. 
Call, see and judge for yourselves." 

The townsite of Bluffton is now a wheatfield. 

Columbia was the name chosen in 1819 for a town which 
is not now in existence. The founders in announcing the 
sale of lots held out these alluring advantages in their pros- 
pectus : 

"This is a pleasant and beautiful situation on the Missouri River, 
nearly opposite Missouriton, in the Sugar Tree Bottom, and about forty 
miles nearly west of Boonville. An order of court has been granted for a 
road to run from Boonville to Pinnacles, fifteen miles below this town, 
through the main street of which its continuance will have to pass. Con- 
sequently the great western communication will be through this town, 
which, combined with its navigable advantages, will render it one of the 
most public places on the Missouri. There are immense coal banks and 
a sufficiency of timber in its immediate vicinity. It is only four miles 
from the Salt Fork of Lamine River, and in a neighborhood rapidly popu- 
lating." 

Missouriton mentioned as a means of locating the pro- 
posed Columbia is unknown to this generation. 

The file of the Intelligencer preserved by the State His- 
torical Society at Columbia, derived considerable advertis- 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 21 

ing patronage from the townsite promoters of one hundred 
years ago. The proprietors of the townsite of Nashville an- 
nounced a week before Christmas, 1819, their philanthropic 
purpose to let their fellow Missourians in on the ground floor 
of a good thing. They said of Nashville : 

"The town is laid off on a Spanish grant confirmed to the United 
States. The title to the property is indisputable. It is situated on the 
north bank of the Missouri River, near the mouth of Little Bonne Femme 
creek, about thirty miles below the town of Franklin. It promises to 
enjoy a large portion of the trade on the river, and from the convenience 
of its situation it will furnish many facilities to the transportation of the 
vast quantities of surplus produce of an extensive and salubrious soil. 
The landing at this town is at all seasons of the year superior to most 
other places and certainly inferior to none on the Missouri. We have 
concluded to give the public at large an opportunity of enjoying the prof- 
its arising from the increase of town property by offering at public sale 
a few lots in Nashville, at Franklin, on Saturday, the first of January, 
1820." 

The site of Nashville in the year 1917 contributed its 
full acreage to Missouri's great corn crop. 

The story is told of a pioneer Missourian that after at- 
tending the land sales at Old Franklin, he started to go south 
of the river. Approaching the ferryman of the Missouri, he 
asked : 

"Oh, stranger! What do you ask for ferrying man and 
horse over this 'ere little muddy fixin'?" The ferryman an- 
swered that the charge was a quarter of a dollar. 

"Rip Roan! Take water!" shouted the pioneer as he 
sent his horse down the bank and into the river. The horse 
settled for a long swim and with the rider uttering en- 
couraging words made the crossing and climbed the opposite 
bank. It is a matter of history that when General Dodge 
and a party of rangers were sent up from St. Louis to disci- 
pline the Miarnis who had migrated from Ohio and were 
making trouble along the Missouri, they swam their horses 
across the river and surprised the Indians. 

Some of the earliest French names were changed to suit 
the vernacular of newcomers. Thus an ambitious movement 
to establish a town on the Perche river resulted in the naming 



22 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

of the site Persia. The location was on the trail from St. 
Charles to Franklin. The promoters of Persia announced 
their plans in a dignified prospectus: 

"The proprietors of this town do not wish to exhibit on paper for 
purposes of speculation, as is too frequently the case, but wish purchasers 
to improve their lots and realize their value. Fifty lots will be given to 
merchants, mechanics, and persons wishing to improve the above town, 
on stipulated terms, viz., a lot out of each block, or in proportion to the 
number of blocks in said town a corner lot on which a building, frame, 
brick or stone, not less than two stories high, and eighteen by twenty- 
five feet, is enclosed by September 20 next." 

Persia has no existence today, not even a solitary resi- 
dent. The same is true of Columbus, the site of which was 
laid out on the bank of the Missouri at what was known as 
Petit Osage bottom. Columbus was heralded in 1819 in this 
announcement which appeared in the Intelligencer: 

"Its natural advantages are not perhaps surpassed by any others 
on the Missouri River. There are several excellent springs of water, 
which may be conveyed to any part of the town. A large bank of stone 
coal convenient, also an established ferry, and from its central position, 
between the contemplated county lines, it is more than probable that it 
will become a county seat. Further description is thought unnecessary, 
as it is presumable that the purchaser will examine before he buys." 

One of these lost towns of Missouri progressed so far 
beyond the lot-selling boom as to make a considerable showing 
in houses. This was America which was located a few miles 
above the junction of the Mississippi and the Ohio. In the 
advertisement of a lot sale to be held in America in 1820, the 
promoter paid his respects to those who had libeled the pros- 
pects of the new community. He said in print: 

"The town was commenced a year ago and is improving rapidly; is 
a prominent seat of justice for the county, and commands the trade of an 
extensive, fertile and thriving tract of country. False and unfounded 
reports respecting its health and liability to overflow have been industrious- 
ly propagated by folly and a mean jealousy of its superior advantages, the 
falsehood of which a visit to the place on that day must effectually detect." 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 23 

First settlers in Missouri ground their grain by pounding 
it in a mortar with a pestle. The stranger coming to a cabin 
about nightfall could hear a long way off the pestle and mor- 
tar at work preparing the home-made meal and hominy for 
breakfast. In large families one member was kept busy with 
the pestle and mortar. A great improvement was the Arm- 
strong mill. This consisted of two flat stones, the upper 
balanced on the lower by a pivot. A pin was fitted into a 
hole on the top stone in such manner as to make it revolve 
on the lower. With one hand on the pin and the other feed- 
ing the grain between the stones, the meal and coarse flour 
was turned out. This mode of grinding took a strong arm 
and tradition has it, suggested the name of the Armstrong 
mill. 

As the settlers increased there came into existence grist 
mills to which these Missourians of one hundred years ago 
carried their corn to be ground. One of the earliest of these 
was in Howard county, at the Boonslick settlement. It was 
run by horse power. Walter Williams has told this story of 
the mill : 

"Jacob Ish, of Saline County, tired of pounding corn with pestle in 
a mortar, went to the Boonslick mill to get some corn meal ground. He 
crossed the Missouri River at Arrow Rock and encamped in the river 
bottom on the opposite bank, with a number of other settlers from different 
parts of the country on their way with corn to be ground at the mill. 
Around the campfire stories were told of encounters with Indians and 
wild beasts, of adventures in the war of 1812, and there was heard the 
spirited music of the violin. There were two or three good performers 
on the instrument, and some of the members of the camp were 'limber as 
to feet and frisky as to heels.' Pigeon wings and double shuffles were 
executed in admirable style to the admiration of the lookers-on. The 
next morning camp was broken up early and the settlers started for the 
mill. Many of them had brought corn and shelled it on the wagon as 
they traveled. Upon reaching the mill it was thronged with customers, 
many of whom had been there for a week, patiently waiting their turn. 
The mill ran night and day. About four hundred yards away was a cabin, 
in which a very inferior article of corn whiskey was sold. Ish and party 
visited this establishement, and its occupants, on learning their business, 
said to them: 'You won't get your grinding for a month. Better fix 
to camp or else go back home.' Mr. Ish had come forty-five miles and 
did not propose to have his trouble for nothing. He kept away from the 
grogshop and made friends with the miller's wife. The same night a 



24 "MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 

man whose turn had come had gone to the grogshop and had become 
obHvious of the fact that he had come to the mill at all. He was not to 
be found. The miller's wife persuaded her husband to give Ish the turn 
of the drunken pioneer, and the next morning by nine o'clock he was on 
his way to the Saline County settlement in triumph, with forty bushels 
of unbolted meal in his wagon for himself and his neighbors. 

"Jacob Ish had arrived in Missouri from Kentucky in 1817. With 
him came a number of immigrants from Kentucky and Indiana. They 
built their cabins along the trail, 'just far enough apart to enable the 
women to raise chickens.' The settlers were in a certain sense com- 
munists, particularly in the borders of Howard and Saline Counties. 
Their work was largely on the co-operative plan. They cleared and 
fenced a large field, which they divided into lots without any partitition 
fences. There every man planted his crop. The entire settlement con- 
tributed toward making the crop in the 'Big Field' as it was called. The 
field increased from forty to one thousand acres. Each settler was entitled 
to cultivate what he cleared and helped to fence; that is, made rails for. 
William Hays took the first wagon into Saline County. The women 
walked and carried their babies in their arms and assisted in driving a 
few head of stock during the day when on their way to the settlement. 
Upon camping at night they prepared the evening meal. The Old Trails 
road country abounded in all sorts of game, and wild meat of some kind 
was always to be found on the pioneer's table. Near the salt springs were 
buffalo, though not in large numbers. Elk were not very rare, while 
deer, turkeys, raccoons, opossums, squirrels and rabbits were so plentiful 
as almost to be had for the taking up anywhere. The hollow trees in the 
woods often contained raccoons or honey. The few hogs in the early 
settlements ran wild, as did the cattle. Hogs fed largely on wild potatoes, 
which grew abundantly. Hogs sometimes swam the Missouri River to 
return to their old homes. The woods were infested with wolves, cata- 
mounts, panthers and bears, and it was difficult to raise cattle or hogs. 
"The Old Trails road settlers were, for the most part, hunting people 
and did not care much about acquiring extensive tracts of land or raising- 
large crops or becoming farmers with no other vocation. They raised 
just as much corn as they thought would serve for the use of their families 
in furnishing bread and mush and enough vegetables to give variety to 
their dinners of game. They raised almost everything they had and they 
manufactured almost everything they wore. Their smokehouses were 
always well supplied with meats of various kinds and honey of the finest 
flavor. After the first year or two in any settlement there was usually 
plenty of meal in the chest and butter and milk in the springhouse or in 
the cellar. Very little coffee and sugar were used and tea was almost 
unknown. The pioneer family that had coffee once a week — Sunday 
morning for breakfast — was considered a high liver. Settlers would 
hunt and trap and secure furs and peltries, which they would exchange 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 25 

for powder and shot and hunting knives for themselves, and cutlery, 
scissors, needles, thread, thimbles and a few other simple articles for the 
use of the women. These latter articles were particularly rare." 



Jacob Coonce was a mighty hunter along the upper Osage 
and the Sac rivers. According to the local tradition, he 
built the first cabin in what is now the county of St. Clair. 
There were so many arrtactive locations in this hunter's para- 
dise that Coonce found it hard to make a choice. He built 
first near the Sac river and later moved to a new location 
near Brush Creek. Coonce hunted with the old flintlock 
until someone told him of the new-fangled percussion. He 
started on horseback for St. Louis to have "Betsy," as he 
affectionately called his rifle, changed. He wore moccasins, 
buckskin leggings, a coonskin cap and carried a blanket. On 
the way he stopped at the place of Robert H, SprouU in 
Henry county, and told of his purpose in going to St. Louis. 
Sproull was a locksmith and convinced Coonce that he could 
do the job. "Betsy" was left with Sproull, but Coonce, 
having started, decided that he must go on to the metropolis. 
Coming back Coonce received his remodeled rifle, patted it 
fondly and said to it, "Old Bet, you and I have never been 
parted so long and we won't be again." Putting a load in 
the rifle and a cap in the new lock, Coonce looked about him 
for a mark. He saw a squirrel on the top of a tree. Raising 
the rifle, he sprung the new lock and brought down the squir- 
rel. Turning to Sproull and smiling, Coonce said, "She is 
all right," and rode away to his home in the hills of the Osage 
country. Other white men came, the Waldos, the Culbert- 
sons, the Gardners, the Burches and scores more, but the 
hunting continued good. The settler who was a good shot 
could go out any time and bring back a buck for dinner. 

Samuel Cole, who came to Central Missouri a boy, told 
these hunting stories: 

"When I was about twelve years old I started one morning to hunt 
for game. My brothers had an old flintlock rifle, which I carried withme. 
It was a large and heavy gun, and was so heavy that I could not shoot it 
without taking a rest. I came up the river, keeping near the bank, until 



26 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

I got to where the courthouse now stands in Boonville. Under the trees, 
which then covered the ground in the courthouse yard, I saw five deer 
standing together. I selected one of the finest looking ones and fired. 
At the crack of my gun he fell; but when I went up to where he was, he 
jumped to his feet, and would have followed the other deer towards the 
river, had I not rushed up and caught hold of him, putting my arms around 
his neck. He pawed me with his sharp hoofs and horned me — his hoofs 
making an ugly gash on my thigh and his horns striking me on the fore- 
head. The marks of both hoofs and horns I carry with me to-day. I 
held the deer until my dog came up. I then loaded the gun and shot him 
again, this time killing him. This was the first deer I ever killed, and 
although it was a dangerous undertaking, the experience only spurred me 
on to gather trophies of a similar character. 

"I killed five bear just below the town — where Boonville now stands — 
and killed twenty-two bears in three days. I killed four elks in less than 
one hour's time. There was a few buffaloes in the county when I came, 
but these were soon killed or driven further westward. I never killed a 
buffalo, but caught five calves of a small herd near the Pettis County line. 
I have seen as many as thirty deer at one sight at Prairie lick. One day 
I went out upon the prairie, in the spring of the year, and saw about 
twenty deer — all lying down except one; this one was a sentinel for the 
herd. I approached within about three hundred yards of them and took 
my handkerchief, which was a large red bandana, and fastened it to the 
end of a stick and shook it a little above my head, when they all sprang 
to their feet and came towards me. A deer has much curiosity, and they 
were determined to find out, if they could, what the red handkerchief 
meant. When one of the largest of the number came within gunshot dis- 
tance, I shot and killed it. I often repeated the handkerchief ruse with 
great success. I have killed and carried to the house three deer before 
breakfast." 

At a celebration in Pacific on the Fourth of July, 1876, 
a letter from C. S. Jeffries, telling of pioneer life in Franklin 
county was read. Mr. Jeffries' recollections dated back to 
1819 when his father's family settled on Labaddie Creek: 
"My father wintered in a log cabin on the Crowe farm near 
by. The cabin was 12x14 feet, with a sort of smokehouse 
adjoining, which we used as a parlor. With the cabin ar- 
rangements, and putting double covers on the wagons, we 
passed the winter admirably. Occasionally, when we had 
visitors, the boys would resort to a fodder pen with their 
buffalo robes, lying on one and covering with the other, 
where we would pass the night very quietly. Being winter, 
there was no danger from snakes, but it would not have been 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 27 

so safe in summer, owing to the great number of rattlesnakes, 
copperheads, spreadheads and other reptiles equally poison- 
ous. At that time the county of Franklin was in a great 
measure a wilderness, covered over with peavine, brush, 
rushes, buffalo grass, and every variety of growth and 
flowers. Stock kept in fine order winter and summer, with 
but little attention. There was but one road in the direction 
of our travel leading west from St. Louis, running near the 
Shaw mill trace, crossing the Bourbeuse River, below where 
Goode's mill now stands. The settlements were mostly con- 
fined along the Missouri River. The public lands were all 
vacant. What was tilled was held by virtue of improve- 
ments, and woe be unto him who dared to enter an improve- 
ment over his neighbor's head. 

"At that day our farming operations were limited. Corn, wheat, 
tobacco, cotton and flax were the principal crops raised, and for home con- 
sumption only; farm riggins, bark collars, rawhide (tug trace) harness, 
and single trace of wood without iron; sleds and truck-wheel wagons, all 
wood. Milling was done at different places, according to distance. We 
had the rawhide band-wheel and the cog-wheel mill. The most of the 
Labaddie settlers had their milling done at or near Glencoe, on Hamilton's 
Creek, at a mill owned by Ninian Hamilton, one of the best men that 
God ever made. Our trading was done at St. Louis. Peltries, venison, 
hams, wild turkeys and furs, with cut money, nine 'bits' to the dollar 
were exchanged for such articles as were absolutely necessary for the 
family; no useless wants were gratified. Out of the cotton, flax and wool 
most of the clothing was manufactured by the wives and daughters. Not 
much calico was worn then, only five yards to the dress." 

An old settler of Montgomery county, R. E. Scanland of 
Mineola Springs, remembered when he and his brother were 
chased out of a field by deer because they ventured too near 
the fawns. In his boyhood he built traps to catch quails 
which he sold for fifteen cents a dozen. Rabbit skins brought 
fifty cents a dozen at the hatter's shop. 

"I recall also in those days we killed our hogs in the woods, where 
they were fattened on acorns, and we could have "all the honey we wanted 
by going into the timber and chopping down a bee tree. And, just think 
of it! There was a rise in the price of wheat, and it got to be worth three 
bits (37^ cents) a bushel, struck measure. Good horses were worth $20 
to $24 and oxen $15 to $20 a yoke. Milk cows from $7 to $13 each. The 



28 " Missouri ANs 100 Years Ago." 

kind of rails Abe Lincoln made cost 37§ cents per 100 — that was the 
price paid for 'making them.' A negro would hire by the year for $40 
for the twelve months and two suits of cotton or linen clothing and two 
blankets. The best class of work hands got $8 a month and the common 
ones $3 to $4 a month. All of our shoes and clothing were home-made, 
and yet those were our happiest days, even if we did have biscuit only 
once a week, and that on Sunday morning. Venison and wild turkey, 
with old-fashioned corn bread johnny cake and trimmings, were good 
enough for us and made life worth the living." 



French fur traders came up the Mississippi in their 
bateaux; they made homes for themselves; their descendants 
settled all the way from Ste. Genevieve to Femme Osage. 
Tennesseeans crossed over from the Seesaw State. There 
was not a well-known family of early days in Virginia or Ken- 
tucky that had not its flourishing Missouri branch. Every 
other Southern state sent its full quota. A current 
of Pennsylvania's blood was circulating in Missouri's 
population even before the state was admitted. The first 
governor of the state and the first mayor of St. Louis were 
Pennsylvanians. New Englanders and New Yorkers early 
saw the coming commercial advantages on the west bank of 
the Mississippi. They came to court them in numbers and 
were called "the Bostons." If the typical American is to be 
a composite, Missouri should furnish his earliest evolution. 
All sections of the country have contributed to the settlement 
of the state. Main traveled road from other countries led 
this way a century ago. 

The coming of the McKnights and the Bradys was an 
event of 1^09. John McKnight and Thomas Brady were the 
leading spirits in this lively crowd. Of the McKnights there 
were John, Thomas, James, Robert and William. The 
McKnights and the Bradys bought a boat at Pittsburg. 
They rowed down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to St. 
Louis. The boat carried a stock of goods as well as the two 
families. The store of McKnight & Brady was opened. For 
a short time after their arrival, the McKnights and Bradys 
were spoken of as "the Irish crowd." Before the second year 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 29 

was out the McKnights and Bradys were a power in the com- 
munity. The second season after their arrival they were able 
to buy a lot sixty feet front on the corner of Main and Pine 
streets, in the business heart of the city. Here they did busi- 
ness successfully until they were able to erect in 1816 an im- 
posing structure of brick, the first in St. Louis for a public 
house. There were stores downstairs, a hotel upstairs where 
was held in 1817 the first celebration, west of the Mississippi, 
of Washington's Birthday. McKnight & Brady amassed 
enough money at trade to go into real estate. They laid out 
what is now part of East St. Louis and called it lUinoistown. 
McKnight served on the grand jury. Brady presided at the 
first meeting of Irishmen to organize the Erin Benevolent 
Society. Thomas Brady married a daughter of John Rice 
Jones, who became one of the first three justices of the Su- 
preme Court of Missouri. One of Thomas Brady's daughters 
married Ferdinand Rozier, the Second. The standing which 
the McKnights and Bradys quickly obtained in the commu- 
nity was shown by the selection of Thomas Brady to be one 
of the commissioners to receive subscriptions to the first 
bank established under charter from the territorial legisla- 
ture in 1813. John McKnight was a commissioner to re- 
ceive subscriptions to the second bank chartered, and Thomas 
Brady was elected a member of the first board of directors 
of the bank. St. Louis never had occasion to regret the 
coming of the McKnights and Bradys. 

The McKnights were enterprising in many directions. 
Robert, one of the four brothers, in 1817 went on a trading 
expedition to Santa Fe and Chihuahua. This was at the 
same time that Jules DeMun and Auguste P. Chouteau went 
out with a stock of goods to do business with the Mexicans. 
The three young men from St. Louis were robbed of their 
goods and thrown into jail. There they remained two years. 
Their treatment was made the basis of a claim against Mex- 
ico by the United States. An indemnity of about one hun- 
dred thousand dollars was paid by Mexico. Another of the 
McKnights, John, a nephew of Robert, went out to Chi- 
hauhau in 1826 and accumulated a fortune in trade there. 



30 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

When he returned to make his home near St. Louis he brought 
with him ten thousand dollars which Governor Armijo had 
given him to place to his credit. As the Mexican handed the 
money, he declined a receipt, saying "All that I want is your 
word." The McKnight road, one of the thoroughfares in 
the western suburbs of St. Louis, was named in honor of this 
family. 

Immediately after the transfer of soveriegnty, Congress 
divided the country acquired into the Territory of Orleans 
and the Territory of Upper Louisiana. Upper Louisiana in- 
cluded all above a line drawn westward opposite Chickasaw 
Bluffs. This placed in Upper Louisiana part of Arkansas. 
The territory was subdivided into districts. The St. Louis 
district included the land lying between the Meramec and 
Missouri rivers, extending into what is Franklin county. In 
1804 the village of Carondelet contained between forty and 
fifty houses. The inhabitants were chiefly French who had 
migrated from Canada. St. Ferdinand, which is Florissant 
now, had sixty houses. In the district of St. Louis there were 
2,200 white people and 500 blacks after the American flag 
was raised. In the settlement of St. Louis there were between 
1,000 and 1,100 people living. 

St. Louis is commonly spoken of by historians as dis- 
tinctly French at the time of the American occupation. That 
is true of the settlement between what is now Fourth street 
and the river front, but it is a fact that somewhat more than 
a majority — about three-fifths — of the population in the dis- 
trict of St. Louis were Americans. 

In the northwestern part of what is now St. Louis county 
was a settlement called St. Andrews, which was one of the 
largest communities in the district. St. Andrews, according 
to tradition, was at one time larger than St. Louis in numbers. 
It was an agricultural community. Many Americans coming 
from Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee passed 
through St. Louis to make homes for themselves in St. An- 
drews. The Missouri river encroached upon the settlement. 
Those of the people who did not care to pursue agriculture 
came to St. Louis after the American flag was raised and 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 31 

established themselves in business and in the professions. 
The American families who occupied the country around St. 
Andrews were encouraged by the Spanish governors during 
the decade preceding the transfer. They were given land. 
They were allowed to have services in their houses conducted 
by traveling preachers. One of the rulings of Governor Tru- 
deau was that if no church bell was rung the worship accord- 
ing to Protestant faith would not interfere with Catholicism 
as the established religion of the colony. 

John F. Darby left his recollection of St. Louis as he saw 
it for the first time in 1818. He was a small boy, the family 
coming from North Carolina that year: 

"The town of St. Louis, at that time, contained about two thousand 
inhabitants, two-thirds of whom were French and one-third Americans. 
The prevailing language of the white persons on the street was French; 
the negroes of the town all spoke French. All the inhabitants used French 
to the negroes, their horses and dogs; and used the same tongue in driving 
their ox-teams. They used no ox- yokes and bows, as the Americans did, 
in hitching their oxen to wagons and carts; but instead had a light piece 
of wood about two or three inches thick and about five feet long, laid on 
the necks of the oxen, close up to the horns of the animals, and this piece 
of wood was fastened to the horns by leather straps, making them pull 
by the head instead of the neck and shoulders. In driving their horses 
and cattle they used the words 'chuck!' and 'see!' 'marchdeau! 'which the 
animals all perfectly understood. 

"Colonel Auguste Chouteau had an elegant domicile fronting on Main 
street. His dwelling and houses for his servants occupied the whole 
square bounded north by Market street, east by Main street, south by 
what is now known as Walnut street, and on the west by Second street. 
The whole square was enclosed by a solid stone wall two feet thick and 
ten feet high, with port holes about every ten feet apart, through which 
to shoot Indians in case of attack. The walls of Colonel Chouteau's 
mansion were two and a half feet thick, of solid stone work; two stories 
high, and surrounded by a large piazza or portico about fourteen feet 
wide, supported by pillars in front and at the two ends. The house was 
elegantly furnished, but at that time not one of the rooms was carpeted. 
In fact, no carpets were then used in St. Louis. The floors of the house 
were made of black walnut, and were polished so finely that they reflected 
like a mirror. He had a train of servants, and every morning after break- 
fast some of those inmates of his household were down on their knees for 
hours, with brushes and wax, keeping the floors polished. The splendid 
abode with its surroundings had indeed the appearance of a castle. 



32 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

"Major Pierre Chouteau also had an elegant domicile, built after the 
same manner and of the same materials. He, too, occupied a whole 
square with his mansion, bounded on the east by Main street, on the south 
by what is known as Vine street, on the west by Second street, and on the 
north by what is now known as Washington avenue, the whole square 
being enclosed with high, solid stone walls and having port holes, in like 
manner as his brother's." 

In 1817 St. Louis had attained the degree of importance 
which demanded two ferry landings. Boats continued to 
bring travelers from the east side to the place where Auguste 
Chouteau had made the first landing near the foot of Market 
street. But another line ran to the other depression in the 
rocky front near the foot of Morgan street. The service, 
under competition, became regular; it continued to be prim- 
itive. Two kinds of boats were used. The slow-moving 
flat-bottomed craft without covering, was employed to cross 
over horses and wagons. A keel boat with four oars made 
quicker passage. Ferry transportation at St. Louis became 
progressive when John Day fixed up a boat with a stern wheel 
which was turned by a horse in a treadmill. As the patient 
animal climbed, the paddle wheel went roupd and the ferry 
churned its way across the Mississippi. In those days, when 
rivalry did not lead to cut rates, the tolls for ferriage was 
twenty-five cents for a human being; fifty cents a head for 
cattle and horses, fifty cents for a wagon or other vehicle; 
twelve and one-half cents a hundred for lumber or other 
heavy freight. 

With 1818 came a new era in ferrying. Samuel Wiggins 
with his family arrived from Charleston, South Carolina. He 
had some means. He connected himself with the ferry busi- 
ness. He bought John Day's horse-power stern-wheeler. He 
acquired the interest of the Piggott heirs in another line. 
Gradually he consolidated and improved the service. He 
did not come too soon. In 1816 one of these frail ferry boats 
was upset by bad handling in the middle of the river. Dubay, 
the ferryman, two assistants and two passengers were drowned. 
As soon as steamboat navigation demonstrated its value, 
Captain Wiggins put into service a steam ferry. Other boats 
were added as the business grew. The "Wiggins Ferry" be- 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 33 

came an institution of the city. It met public needs. If it 
had not been so well conducted St. Louis would not have 
waited until 1874 for the first bridge. 

What the metropolis of Missouri was from the commercial 
and industrial view, Colonel Charless set forth in the Mis- 
souri Gazette of July 13, 1816: 

"The opulent town of St. Louis may boast of a capital of nearly one 
million, and has few manufactories, no respectable seminary, no place of 
worship for dissenters, no public edifices, no steam mill or boat, no bank, 
and, I was going to say, no effective police. Mr. Philipson has lately 
established an excellent brewery, where excellent beer and porter are 
made. Mr. Wilt erected a red and white lead manufactory and threw 
into the market several tons of that useful article, his red lead has been 
admired as superior to that imported. Mr. Hunt's tanning establishment 
is of primary importance. Mr. Henderson's soap manufactory would be 
of great utility if it only received that patronage the proprietor so richly 
merits. 

"I have no doubt that brickmakers and bricklayers, carpenters who 
could be satisfied with a moderate compensation for their labor, black- 
and whitesmiths, silversmiths, woolen and cotton carding and spinning 
machines and managers, tobacconists, nailers, gunsmiths, coopers, pump- 
makers, stocking weavers, wagon-makers, stone-cutters, boat-, barge- and 
ship-builders, rope-makers, cutlers and tool-makers, skin-dressers and 
many other employments would do well here. A man of capital and 
enterprise would soon accumulate a large fortune by erecting a steam 
flour- and saw-mill in this place; wheat sells here at one dollar per bushel 
(abundance raised in the country), and good merchantable flour is sure to 
command from eight to ten dollars per barrel. Corn generally rates at from 
twenty-five to fifty cents and will bring in meal from fifty to eighty-seven 
and one-half cents a bushel. Pine boards sell at four dollars and oak and 
ash at two and three dollars per hundred feet. Saw-logs could be brought 
to town at one dollar each. Five thousand barrels of whiskey are an- 
nually received here from the Ohio and sold at seventy-five cents a gal- 
lon, while thousands of bushels of grain are offered at a low price to any 
enterprising man who will commence a distillery." 



Brackenridge told of the social conditions as he found 
them in St. Louis. Of the French he said : 

"Amongst their virtues, we may enumerate honesty and punctuality 
in their dealings, hospitality to strangers, friendship and affection amongst 
relatives and neighbors. 
3 



34 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

"Their amusements were cards, billiards and dancing; this last, of 
course, the favorite. The dances were cotillions, and sometimes the min- 
uet. Children have also their balls and are taught a decorum and pro- 
priety of behavior which is preserved through life. They have a certain 
ease and freedom of address, and are taught the secret of real politeness — 
self-denial. 

"Their language, everything considered, is more pure than might be 
expected. Their manner of lengthening the sounds of words, although 
languid and without the animation which the French generally possess, 
is by no means disagreeable. They have some new words and others are 
in use which in France have become obsolete. 

"In their persons they are well formed, of an agreeable, pleasant 
countenance, indicating cheerfulness and serenity. 

"The dress of the females was generally simple and the variations of 
fashion few; though they were dressed in much better taste than the other 
sex. The American costume is generally introduced into the best fami- 
lies and among the young girls and young men universally. I never saw 
anywhere greater elegance of dress than at the balls in St. Louis. 

"These people exhibit a striking difference when compared with the 
unconquerable pertinacity of the Pennsylvania Germans who adhere so 
rigidly to the customs, manners and language of their fathers. A few 
years have affected a greater change with the inhabitants of this territory 
than has been brought about among the Germans in fifty years. 

"There was scarcely any distinction of classes in the society. The 
wealthy and more intelligent would, of course, be considered as more im- 
portant personages, but there was no difference clearly marked. They 
all associated, dressed alike and frequented the small ball-room. They 
were, in fact, nearly all connected by the ties of affinity or consanguinity; 
so extensive is this that I have seen the carnival, from the death of a 
common relation, pass by cheerless and unheeded. The number of per- 
sons excluded was exceedingly small. What an inducement to comport 
one's self with propriety and circumspection! The same interest 
at stake, the same sentiment that in other countries influence the first 
classes of society, were here felt by all its members." 



"Mimi" was a pet name for girls in the old French fam- 
ilies a century ago. It was Indian and meant little pigeon. 
"Virginia" was a favorite name for daughters among the 
French families. The suggestion did not come from the Old 
Dominion state. Baby girls were christened Virginia be- 
cause the mothers had read, tearfully, the story of Paul and 
Virginia. Bernardine de Saint Pierre's novel came out in 
1797. It circulated all over the world and reached St. Louis. 



"MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 35 

The romance made the first literary impression on the village. 
It prompted the use of the name of the heroine many times. 

Commingling of the elements of the population of St. 
Louis came promptly. There was no line of exclusion in 
business or matrimony. The evolution of the typical St. 
Louisan was rapid. Of the more than one thousand de- 
scendants of Madame Chouteau, the mother of St. Louis, not 
two hundred have borne French names. In the present gen- 
eration these descendants are represented in families of six 
former nationalities. 

The loveliest woman of St. Louis in 1812 was Isabelle 
Gratiot, granddaughter of Madame Chouteau. She had 
beauty of feature and charm of manner. The social event of 
that year was the marriage of Isabelle Gratiot and Jules 
DeMun, one of the best educated young men of the town, for 
St. Louis had not then become a city. Jules DeMun had 
lived in France and England. He had enjoyed the best of 
educational advantages. He spoke and wrote Spanish. His 
manners were gentle and retiring. The union was ideal. 
There were five daughters. Isabelle, the namesake of her 
mother, became the wife of Edward Walsh and their first- 
born was Julius S. Walsh. Julie DeMun married Antoine 
Leon Chenie. Louise was Mrs. Robert A. Barnes. Emilie 
became the wife of Charles Bland Smith. Walsh was from 
Ireland. Barnes was a native of the District of Columbia, 
descended from a Maryland family. Smith was a native of 
St. Louis, of Virginia and Kentucky descent. Only one of 
these four great-granddaughters of Madame Chouteau mar- 
ried into a French family. In his will Robert A. Barnes, who 
left a great estate to found a hospital, referred to Mrs. Barnes 
as "my beloved wife, the most devoted daughter, wife and 
m.other I ever knew." Mrs. Barnes was a devout Catholic. 
There was not only no conflict of religious opinion between 
them but Mrs. Barnes coincided heartily with her husband in 
his plans to place his hospital bequest in the hands of Meth- 
odist trustees. 

A romance of the decade, 1820-30, coming down to the 
present through family traditions, links the names of two of 



36 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

the famous Coalter sisters with two St. Louians who became 
eminent. There were five of the Coalter sisters. The fam- 
ily was among the best of South Carolina. Three of the 
sisters married South Carolinians, William C. Preston, Chan- 
cellor Harper and Dr. M. Means. Edward Bates, the young 
St. Louis lawyer, courted Caroline J. Coalter. He was re- 
jected, but so gently that the friendship between them, con- 
tinued. One of Edward Bates' strong characteristics was the 
ability to inspire confidence in himself. Miss Coalter was 
induced to admit to her suitor that her preference was for 
Hamilton Rowan Gamble, the young Virginia lawyer who 
had come out to join his elder brother Archibald. Miss Coal- 
ter explained that she could never marry Hamilton because 
of his habits. Edward Bates, so the tradition runs, went to 
Gamble, told him what he was losing and induced him to sign 
the pledge. Gamble kept the pledge. He became exemplary 
in his habits. In 1827 Hamilton Gamble and Caroline Coal- 
ter were married. But before that, Edward Bates had mar- 
ried Julia D. Coalter, the sister of Caroline. A third of a 
century later these two men, one of Virginia descent, with 
South Caolina wives, became leading characters in the oppo- 
sition to secession of Missouri. Bates went into Lincoln's 
cabinet and Gamble became the war governor who organized 
Missouri for loyalty to the Union. 

The seven daughters of Rufus Easton, the first post- 
master of St. Louis, formed one of the most notable groups of 
young women during the years when St. Louis was passing 
through the transitions of village, town and city. The 
mother of the Easton girls was a New York lady of culture. 
As they grew up, the girls received the very best educational 
advantages which could be given them. Their hands were 
sought in marriage by some of the foremost young men of 
that generation. One of the sisters married Henry S. Geyer, 
the lawyer; another, Archibald Gamble, brother of the gov- 
ernor; a third, Major Sibley, with whom she founded Linden- 
wood seminary at St. Charles. Another of the Easton sis- 
ters became the wife of Thomas L. Anderson of Palmyra. 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 37 

Strong and sometimes eccentric individuality character- 
ized the Missourians of one hundred years ago. One of the 
early judges of the court in St. Louis was Nathaniel Beverly 
Tucker. He was a half brother of John Randolph of Vir- 
ginia, a fine lawyer, but somewhat peculiar. On his country 
place in the Florissant valley, Judge Tucker found a great 
hollow sycamore tree when he bought the farm. He had the 
tree cut off ten feet from the ground, put on a roof, inserted 
a door and a window, moved in his desk and law books and 
made the hollow tree his law ofhce. Judge Tucker loved 
solitude. He was especially averse to mingling with the 
"Universal Yankee Nation," as he called the northerners. 
When the first Missouri Constitution was in process of for- 
mation, in 1820, Judge Tucker told the framers they ought 
to put in a provision to prohibit Yankees crossing the Mis- 
sissippi river. Edward Bates wanted to know Judge Tucker's 
idea of the kind of phrasing which would accomplish that. 
The judge replied that every immigrant presenting himself 
at the ferry on the Illinois side should be asked to pronounce 
the word "cow." If the traveler said "keow," he should be 
turned back. 

John Graves kept the first hotel in Chillicothe. He 
started his "tavern house," as he called it, so early in the his- 
tory of that community that many consider him the founder 
of the city. Graves had a very good opinion of his hotel 
management. He resented any fault-finding. One day a 
traveler complained about the cooking. He thought there 
ought to be something better than fat bacon floating in 
grease, corn pone and black coffee. Graves caught hold of 
the man's collar, pulled him away from his chair at the table 
and kicked him out the front door. "The blamed skunk," he 
said, "insulted my boarders and I won't stand it. My board- 
ers eat my fare and like it ; and when a man makes fun of my 
grub, it's the same as saying they haven't sense enough to 
know good grub from bad. I am bound to protect my 
boarders." 

The chief end of Sam Thompson's life was to add to the 
gaiety of Grand River valley life. A rather serious-minded 



38 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

and not well-informed settler in the Grand River country de- 
clared himself a candidate for justice of the peace. He 
treated the voters from a bucket of wild honey and was 
elected. Sam Thompson had a dog named Queen. The dog 
broke into Reub. Campbell's smokehouse and stole some 
meat. Campbell was the constable. Thompson prompted 
him to go to the new justice, make complaint against the dog 
and ask for a warrant. The justice issued the warrant 
alleging that "a certain dog of the name of Queen" had 
"stolen a piece of middlin' meat" and was guilty of larceny 
"against the peace and dignity of the State." Constable 
Campbell took the paper, went out and came back leading 
Queen by a string. Then Thompson presented himself and 
asked that he be allowed to appear as "next friend" to defend 
a "member of his household." He entered a plea of not 
guilty. The justice was entirely in earnest and very much 
impressed with the gravity of his first case. Witnesses were 
examined with great care. Thompson, apparently very much 
affected, cross-examined to preserve the "rights" of his client. 
He made a long and eloquent plea and in conclusion asked 
the justice, if he could not acquit, to at least "consider the 
respect and deference due the female sex." 

The justice deliberated, said the dog was "guilty" and 
sentenced her to receive "thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, 
well laid on." Sam Thompson gave notice of appeal and went 
out to get a bondsman. About this time a relative of the 
justice went to him and' exposed the conspiracy, telling him 
"for the Lord's sake, stop whar you are and don't make it no 
wuss." Along the Grand River valley the story of the dog 
case before the new squire was told for a generation. 

When Sam Thompson was running for office in the Grand 
River country he sought to make the settlers feel he was one 
of the plain people. "I was born and reared in poverty, gen- 
tlemen," he said; "I went barefooted 'till I was of age, and I 
wore no other garment than a tow linen shirt until my arm 
was as big as an ear of corn." 

Dr. Barlow was an eccentric character in Newton county. 
He dressed in knee-breeches, and black stockings, with a 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 39 

curtain-calico blouse, and equally peculiar hat. On one occa- 
sion he attended religious services at the Hickory Creek 
schoolhouse, ostensibly for the sake of taking part in the sing- 
ing, which he could do very well; but really to win notoriety. 
He was asked by Elder Hearrell why he went in such a dress, 
when he replied, "Well, I want to bring myself into notice." 
"And, Doctor, you have succeeded," was the elder's com- 
ment. 

Thomas Maddin was one of the richest American set- 
tlers, while Lewis Bolduc was one of the principal business 
men of Ste. Genevieve. The two men had a dispute as to 
which was worth the most. Maddin offered to bet on his 
surplus. Bolduc accepted the wager and called for a half- 
bushel to measure the silver coin heaped in his cellar. As 
soon as he realized what was in sight, Maddin gave up, ac- 
knowledging that Bolduc had the most. 

Judge Peck was a man of eccentricities. He was from 
the mountains of East Tennessee. While he stood six feet 
and was of fine physique, he had brothers who towered from 
six inches to a foot above him. The story followed Peck to 
St. Louis that because he was smaller than the other mem- 
bers of the family and unable to do as much work as they 
could on the farm, he was sent to school to become a lawyer. 
Peck came to St. Louis in 1818. His appointment to the 
Federal Bench occurred just after Missouri was admitted as 
a state. One of the judge's customs was to appear in court 
with a large white handkerchief bound around his head, cov- 
ering the eyes. The handkerchief was put on before the 
judge left his home. A servant conducted him from his car- 
riage into the court room and to the bench. The judge sat 
through the session blindfolded. Whenever it was necessary 
to present a paper to him, the contents were read aloud by 
the clerk or the counsel. The explanation given for this sin- 
gular procedure was that the judge believed his eyes were 
affected and that he would go blind if he exposed them to the 
light. Judge Peck was a bachelor. He had at one time paid 
devoted attentions to a lady of St. Louis. There was a third 



40 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

man in the case. Peck and his rival met in the street and 
fought about the lady. The rival was accepted. 

Brackenridge, who practiced in the courts of the new ter- 
ritory a year or two, told the story of a trial before two of the 
recently appointed judges. The third judge was absent from 
the bench that day. No jury was required. The case was 
elaborately presented, and exhaustingly argued. The judges 
retired for consultation. When they came back there was an 
embarrassing pause. The counsel looked expectantly toward 
the bench. The judges bent on the papers. At length one 
of them said: "We are prepared to announce the finding of 
the court. We've split." 



A mild-mannered, serious-faced, silent man was William 
H. Ashley. With knowledge of the force of character behind 
those peaceful-appearing features, the organizers of the 
Rocky Mountain Fur Company selected Ashley as the leader. 
Early in the spring two boats were loaded with goods for the 
Indians. Major Henry recruited and armed one hundred 
men, picking those who had seen service in the fur trade. The 
destination was the mouth of the Yellowstone far up the Mis- 
souri, in what is now Montana. Very complete, not to say 
elaborate, were the preparations. Perhaps no other expedi- 
tion in the history of the fur trade was better planned. On 
the way to Ashley's boats a wagon load of powder exploded 
at Washington avenue and Ninth street. The owner of the 
wagon, a Mr. Labarge, and two of his men were killed. This 
was the beginning of misfortunes. When the expedition 
reached the Arickarees' country. General Ashley met the 
chiefs of that tribe. He gave them presents. He paid them 
for fifty horses. When his men went to the place where they 
were to receive the horses they were attacked. Fifteen of 
them were killed. The horses were stampeded. The boats 
were driven away from the bank. War was declared. Gen- 
eral Ashley had sent part of his force with Major Henry over- 
land to the Yellowstone. This detachment encountered the 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 41 

Blackfoot Indians and lost four men and the goods it was 
transporting. 

Ashley met the desperate situation with iron nerve. He 
waited until the United States troops had dispersed the Arick- 
arees, who were blockading the Missouri. With more men 
and goods from St. Louis, he went on to the mouth of the 
Yellowstone. In his mind, Ashley had no doubt as to what 
had prompted the Indian hostility. As soon as he had estab- 
lished his base, he began a series of raids on the traders and 
Indian allies of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. The prop- 
erty stolen from him Ashley found scattered among the 
traders and Indians. While pursuing a band of the rival fur 
company's Indians, Ashley made a geographical discovery of 
great importance. The pursuit led him into the great South 
Pass of the Rocky Mountain Range. Ashley brought back 
to St. Louis the first knowledge of the vast interior between 
the Rocky and the Sierra ranges. He lost one-fourth of his 
men and half of his goods in the contest for trade supremacy 
in the Northwest. He came back to St. Louis in June, 1823, 
after fifteen months' hardships, the boats piled high with 
packs of beaver and other furs. The company's venture had 
been immensely remunerative. Beyond this, the traders of 
the Hudson Bay Fur Company had been driven out of the 
country and the Indians had been cowed. But of still greater 
importance to the coming generations, an easy way through 
the Rocky Mountain range had been found. 

There were four Sublettes in the fur trade. William L. 
was the Captain Sublette. He was six feet two inches, tawny- 
haired and blue-eyed, with a deep scar on his face which told 
he was game. The Sublettes were descended of Kentucky 
stock on their mother's side from Wheatley, the companion 
of Daniel Boone, who was said to have killed Tecumseh. 
When William L. Sublette came to Missouri he started a bil- 
liard room. When William H. Ashley published his call of 
the spring of 1822 "to enterprising young men," William L. 
and Milton G. Sublette responded. The call said "the sub- 
scriber wishes to engage one hundred young men to ascend 
the Missouri River to its source, there to be employed one, 



42 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

two or three years." This meant fur trading, although the 
call did not say so. Andrew and Solomon P. Sublette, who 
were younger, joined their brothers later. Captain Sublette 
served with Ashley, and when the leader was ready to retire, 
became one of the party who brought him out. Twenty years 
William L. Sublette was a fur trader. Robert Campbell 
came to St. Louis from Aughlane, Ireland, when he was 
twenty. The doctors ordered him to the mountains for his 
health. Campbell joined one of Ashley's fur-trading expedi- 
tions. A warm friendship developed between Campbell and 
William L. Sublette. A partnership was formed. Campbell 
and Sublette, while with Ashley, were mountain fur traders. 
When they went into business for themselves they had the 
temerity to establish posts on the Missouri River. For sev- 
eral years they gave the American Fur Company the most 
serious competition it had. They accumulated handsome for- 
tunes. Sublette lived in a large stone house on the hill south 
of Forest Park. He maintained a private zoo of wild ani- 
mals he had tamed. His house was full of curiosities gathered 
in his mountain career. At the store which Sublette and 
Campbell conducted in St. Louis an Indian tepee was set up 
and inhabited by an Indian family. Captain Sublette sur- 
rounded himself with Indian retainers. When one of them 
died a grave was made in the private burying ground of the 
Sublettes. The Indians called the Captain "Fate." 

Captain Sublette was a man of sentiment. He avoided 
conflict with the Indians with rare skill. When it was neces- 
sary to fight he did his full part. Famous in fur-trading his- 
tory is the battle at Pierre's Hole with the Blackfeet. There 
Sublette and Campbell, with their shirt sleeves rolled up, 
grasping their pistols, charged a breastwork. Just before do- 
ing so, each of these close friends made a will remembering 
the other. Sublette was severely wounded. It was after 
this battle and the ensuing season that Sublette and Camp- 
bell returned to St. Louis; heading a train of pack-horses 
loaded with furs, and attended by hunters, guides and In- 
dians. The outfit made an imposing procession a mile long. 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 43 

After his retirement from active business, Captain Sub- 
lette had political aspirations. He wanted to go to Congress 
from St. Louis. He wrote to Senator Benton asking him for 
the appointment of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and 
died in 1845 while on the way to Washington to see about it. 

William L. Sublette married an Alabama lady, Miss 
Frances Hereford, to whom his younger brother Solomon P. 
had been quite attentive. When the Captain died he left 
his fortune to Mrs. Sublette, on condition that she would not 
change her name. After a period of mourning the widow 
became the wife of Solomon P. Sublette. She did not change 
her name. 

Andrew Sublette was a mighty bear hunter. The pelt 
was the smallest part of the consideration. Whenever An- 
drew Sublette found himself in new territory he tried the 
temper of the bears. He went to California with the Forty- 
niners, listened to stories of the ferocious grizzlies and went 
after them. He had a dog that liked bear fighting as well as 
he did. In the vicinity of Los Angeles Andrew Sublette came 
upon a grizzly and wounded it. The mate of the bear rushed 
out of the brush and attacked. Sublette was caught with 
unloaded gun. He drew his knife, and with the dog beside 
him, fought until he had killed the two bears. Man and dog 
were frightfully torn. Sublette lingered and died of the 
wounds. The dog remained by the bedside through the ill- 
ness, followed his master's body to the grave and lay beside 
it. Refusing to eat or drink, he died. 

Three of the volunteers who responded to Ashley's call 
were Mike Fink and his friends Carpenter and Talbot. They 
never came back to St. Louis, and their loss was the city's 
gain. Fink's favorite way of spelling his name was Micke 
Phinck. Carpenter and he frequently entertained a crowd 
of St. Louis boatmen with their feats of marksmanship. At 
seventy yards either one could shoot a tin cup of whiskey from 
the other's head. These three men traveled the rivers. They 
belonged to the roving "half horse, half alligator" tribe of 
boatmen. Mike Fink's last exploit before he left St. Louis 
to go fur hunting with Ashley and Henry was to shoot the 



44 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

heel off a negro. The black boy was lounging on the levee. 
He had a protruding heel. Fink, at thirty yards, raised his 
rifle and fired. The boy dropped. Fink's defense was that 
he wanted to make the foot so that a genteel boot would fit 
it. Public sentiment in St. Louis did not accept this pleas- 
antry. Fink was sent to jail. He got out in time to go with 
the Ashley expedition. Far up in the Northwest, above the 
Yellowstone, Fink and Carpenter quarreled. Apparently 
they made up. The next time they tried the tin cup experi- 
ment, Captenter told Talbot he believed Fink meant to kill 
him. The two men threw a copper to decide who should 
shoot first. Fink won. Carpenter gave his rifle and equip- 
ment to Talbot and took his position with the cup on his 
head. Fink aimed, and lowered his rifle; playfully telling 
Carpenter to "hold his noddle steady." Then he aimed 
again and fired. Carpenter was shot through the head. Fink 
said it was all a mistake and blamed his rifle. Several weeks 
went by. Fink bragged of killing Carpenter purposely. Tal- 
bot drew a pistol which Carpenter had given him and killed 
Fink. A short time afterwards Talbot was drowned, trying 
to cross the Teton River. The story seems incredible, but 
it is told in a letter-book of General William Clark possessed 
by the Kansas Historical Society at Topeka. 



Missouri climate charmed the newcomers of one hundred 
years ago. It received the emphatic commendation of the 
travelers and visiting scientists. John Bradbury, an English 
naturalist, came to Missouri about 1811 and remained several 
years. He wrote from experience: 

"The climate is very fine. The spring commences about the middle 
of March in the neighborhood of St. Louis, at which time the willow, the 
elms, and maples are in flower. The spring rains usually occur in May, 
after which month the weather continues fine, almost without interrup- 
tion, until September, when rain again occurs about the equinox, after 
which it again remains fine, serene weather until near Christmas, when 
winter commences. About the beginning or middle of October the In- 
dian summer begins, which is immediately known by the change that 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 45 

takes place in the atmosphere, as it now becomes hazy, or what they 
term smoky. This gives to the sun a red appearance, and takes away the 
glare of light, so that all the day, except a few hours about noon, it may 
be looked at with the naked eye without pain; the air is perfectly quies- 
cent and all is stillness, as if nature, after her exertions during the summer, 
was not at rest. The winters are sharp, but it may be remarked that less 
snow falls, and they are much more moderate on the west than on the 
east side of the Alleghanies in similar latitudes." 

Bradbury became enamored with Missouri and made his 
home here. He built a house near a sulphur spring on the 
banks of the River des Peres and was living there as late as 
1819. 



Great expectation attended the government expedition 
headed by Major Long, which left St. Louis in 1819. The 
destination was the Upper Missouri. The purpose was a 
comprehensive military and scientific exploration of the 
country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Moun- 
tains. In an editorial, the Missouri Gazette of April 21 said: 

"The importance of this expedition has attracted the attention of the 
whole nation, and there is no measure which has been adopted by the 
present administration that has received such universal commendation. 
If the agents of the government who have charge of it fulfil the high ex- 
pectations which have been raised, it will conspicuously add to the admira- 
tion with which the administration of James Monroe will hereafter be 
viewed. * * * * If the expedition should succeed, as we fondly hope and 
expect, and the views of the government should be carried into effect, the 
time will not be far distant when another nation will inhabit west of the 
Mississippi, equal at least, if not superior, to those which the ancient re- 
mains still found in this country lead us to believe once flourished here, 
a nation indeed rendered more durable by the enjoyment of that great 
invention of American freemen — a Federal Republic." 

"White man bad man, keep great spirit chained and 
bui'ld fire under it to make it work a boat." This was an In- 
dian's description of the Western Engineer, the craft which 
transported these government scientists. 

Upon the arrival of the expedition at St. Louis, the En- 
quirer said of this remarkable marine architecture: 



46 "MissouRiANs 100 Years Ago." 

"The bow of the vessel exhibits a huge serpent, black and scaly, 
rising out of the water from under the boat, his head as high as the deck, 
darted forward, his mouth open, vomiting smoke, and apparently carry- 
ing the boat on his back. From under the boat, at its stern, issues a 
stream of foaming water, dashing violently along. All the machinery is 
hid. The boat is ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles 
an hour. Neither wind nor human hands are seen to help her; and to the 
eye of ignorance the illusion is complete, that a monster of the deep carries 
her on his back smoking with fatigue and lashing the waves with violent 
exertion." 

The Indians thought they could see a long tongue dart 
out when the steam puffed forth from the serpent's head. 
They were horror-stricken. 

Before they left St. Louis to go up the Missouri, the Long 
party made some local investigations. Mr. Say and Mr. 
Peale went down the river to the mouth of the Meramec and 
up that stream about fifteen miles. They had been told of 
the discovery of graves in that locality. The graves were 
said to contain skeletons of a diminutive race. So much had 
the story impressed the neighborhood, that a town which had 
been laid out bore the name of Lilliput. In one of the graves 
a skull without teeth had been found. This had been made 
the basis for another local theory that these prehistoric resi- 
dents of the Meramec had had jaws like a turtle. The sci- 
entists found that the graves had been walled in neatly, and 
covered with flat stones. They opened several and saw that 
the bones were of ordinary size, seemingly having been 
buried after the flesh had been separated from them, accord- 
ing to the custom of certain Indian tribes. The skull with 
the turtle-like jaw was that of an old man who had lost his 
teeth. 

The scientists satisfied themselves that there was nothing 
extraordinary in the contents of the graves. As the narra- 
tive was, they "sold their skilT, shouldered their guns, bones 
and spade, and bent their weary steps toward St. Louis, dis- 
tant sixteen miles, where they arrived at lip. m., having had 
ample time, by the way, to indulge sundry reflections on that 
quality of the mind, either imbibed in the nursery or gen- 
erated by evil communications, which incites to the love of 



"MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 47 

the marvelous, and, by hyperbole, casts the veil of falsehood 
over the charming features of simple nature." 

The Long expedition gave to American geography "the 
Great American Desert." Long and his party of scientists 
explored Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. They 
left the Missouri near Omaha. They went as far as the 
Rocky Mountains. They divided into groups and covered 
considerable territory, before they arrived at Fort Smith. In 
summing up his conclusions on the expedition. Major Long 
included in his sweeping condemnation northern Texas and 
the Dakotas. 

"In regard to this extensive section of country," he wiote 
to the government, "we do not hesitate in giving the opinion, 
that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation and, of course, 
uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for 
their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile lands consider- 
ably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scar- 
city of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove 
an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. 
This objection rests not only against the immediate section 
under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a 
very much larger portion of the country." 

It is here that Major Long spreads his desert idea over 
part of Texas and all of the Dakotas. He adds: 

"Agreeably to the best intelligence that can be had, concerning the 
country northward and southward of the section, and especially to the 
references deducible from the account given by Lewis and Clark of the 
country situated between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, above 
the river Platte, the vast region commencing near the sources of the Sa- 
bine, Trinity, Brazos and Colorado, extending northwardly to the forty- 
ninth degree of north latitude, by which the United States is limited in 
that direction, is throughout of a similar character. The whole of this 
region seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild goats, and 
other wild game, incalculable multitudes of which find ample pasturage 
and subsistence upon it." 

Major Long found reason to congratulate the govern- 
ment that this Great American Desert was where, according 
to his observation, it was. 



48 "MissouRiANS 100 Years Ago." 

"This region, however," he wrote, "viewed as a frontier, 
may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inas- 
much as it is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent too 
great an extension of our population westward, and secure 
us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that 
might otherwise be disposed to annoy us in that quarter." 

Long was an officer of the government engineer corps, of 
high attainments. He had in his party a botanist, a zoolo- 
gist, a geologist, a naturalist, a painter and topographers. 
These scientists of one hundred years ago agreed that Mis- 
souri was "the farthest west" for the expansion of American 
civilization. 



